rding to this hypothesis, the infant world deserves to suffer, because
the sin of Adam, their federal head and representative, is imputed to
them. It is even contended that this constitution, by which the guilt or
innocence of the world was suspended on the conduct of the first man, is a
bright display of the divine goodness, since it was so likely to be
attended with a happy issue to the human race. Likely to be attended with
a happy issue! And did not the Almighty foresee and know, that if the
guilt of the world were made to depend on the conduct of Adam, it would
infallibly be attended with a fatal result?

We have examined, at length, the arguments of an Edwards to show that such
a divine scheme and constitution of things is a display or manifestation
of goodness. Those arguments are, perhaps, as ingenious and plausible as
it is possible for the human intellect to invent in the defence of such a
cause. When closely examined and searched to the bottom, they certainly
appear as puerile and weak as it is possible for the human imagination to
conceive.

Indeed, no coherent hypothesis can be invented on this subject, so long as
the mind of the inventor fails to recognise the impossibility of excluding
all sin from the moral system of the universe: for if all sin, then all
suffering, likewise, may be excluded; and we can never understand why
either should be permitted; much less can we comprehend why the innocent
should be allowed to suffer. But having recognised this impossibility, we
have been conducted to three grounds, on which, it is believed, the
sufferings of the innocent may be reconciled with the goodness of God.

First, the sufferings of the innocent, in so far as they are the
consequences of sin, serve to show its terrific nature, and tend to
prevent its introduction into the world. If this end could have been
accomplished by the divine power, such a provision would have been
unnecessary, and all the misery of the world only so much "suffering in
waste." Secondly, the sufferings of the innocent serve as a foil to set
off and enhance the blessedness of eternity. They are but a short and
discordant prelude to an everlasting harmony. Thirdly, difficulties and
trials, temptations and wants, are indispensable to the rise of moral good
in the soul of the innocent; for if there were no temptation to wrong,
there could be no merit in obedience, and no virtue in the world.
Suffering is, then, essential to the moral dis